Ubuntu 11.10 : A serious setback

[Legendary_Bibo]

I ran into too many bugs with Unity and the performance was horrible, so I switched over to Gnome Shell and had the same performance I had with Gnome 2, and it's a lot more usable. Also, it's prettier, and the integrated notifications system is great (for example, they've embedded the Empathy chat right into so you just hover to bottom right click on the icon and it brings up this little integrated chat box (the only problem I have is to use it without having to have the empathy chat window open is to have someone else initiate the conversation, and it'd be great if they integrated the contact list)).

[meho_r]

I completely agree that it's a serious setback. Unity was useless the first time I tried it (and I tried it many, many times since it was introduced).

I am actually considering going back to *******. For a OS that is allegedly "easily customizable", nothing is intuitive. I'm stuck with a screen that is sized too large for what I can do, it's not customizable, and I want to see what I have installed easily, not having to type what I &*#$&*#^ well want.

Is Unity supposed to be a guessing game? Do I have this installed? Do I need to download that? Really? No, really?

Probably you should go back to Windows. Really, guys, when one is faced with something new, it is expected that s/he at least reads a guide and gets acquainted with it, before starting to rant about it. Unity is different, but in many instances positively different. No "guessing" game, just usual RTFM, or RTFUDG.

I hated Unity when I first saw it, but after couple of hours of using it and after reading "Ubuntu Desktop Guide", I started to like it. Two days after, I'm more comfortable with it than I was with Gnome 2.

And, at last, if you don't like it, you don't have to use it. As people mentioned couple of times here, there is a lot to choose from: XFCE, KDE, MS Windows...

[MarjaE]

Yeah, I went out of my way to buy a manual. It covers Lucid. Much of the online info is more up-to-date, but it often leads to dead ends and it often leads to overly technical sections where I'd need a manual to the manual.

[BobvanderPoel]

Add me to the list of "disappointed with 11.10" folks. Tried various flavors of gnome and kde4. I just see a buch of bloated and ugly stuff.

So, I decided to give xfce4 a try. LOVE IT. Especially since I've started to run it with compiz! Apart from some blinking when I start a session, it's pretty much seamless. Biggest plus for my aging eyes is the magnify (compiz) function!

To try this from a running session:

1. In case there is a problem, turn off session save (settings->session and startup->general->uncheck "automatically save session".

2. From a terminal type:

compiz --compiz --replace ccp &

3. You should get compiz running replacing the existing window manager.

4. If this works, hit ctr-c in the terminal and then log out.

If compiz is working okay, set your system so that xfce4 uses this all the time. Use your editor of choice to change the file:

/etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

Around line 14 delete the lines:

<property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
<value type="string" value="xfwm4"/>
</property>


with:

<property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
<value type="string" value="compiz"/>
<value type="string" value="ccp"/>
</property>

Logout/in and you're in bliss!

[TheNosh]

I ran into too many bugs with Unity and the performance was horrible, so I switched over to Gnome Shell and had the same performance I had with Gnome 2, and it's a lot more usable. Also, it's prettier, and the integrated notifications system is great (for example, they've embedded the Empathy chat right into so you just hover to bottom right click on the icon and it brings up this little integrated chat box (the only problem I have is to use it without having to have the empathy chat window open is to have someone else initiate the conversation, and it'd be great if they integrated the contact list)).

Also, dynamically expanding workspaces are something I'd like to see as an option everywhere. So far I only know of the feature being in Gnome 3 and OS X Lion.

It's a shame I don't like the rest of Gnome 3 as much as that feature, and I can't afford to drop the money for a decent Mac.

[piercedphoenix]

New member here (and still relatively new to Ubuntu.) I've just installed 11.10 - like other people here I wanted to get back to the classic Gnome desktop as quickly as possible. I just find it much easier to get to everything I need that way.
I'm disappointed so far that the Gnome desktop isn't as easy to customise as in previous versions of Ubuntu.

I've followed the instructions from the original poster re customising the fonts and getting the trash can back, but I still haven't found a good way to create a launcher on the desktop for my favourite regular programs, documents, etc. I'm sure I'll find a way round it eventually, but it is quite irritating in the meantime. I'd just got my old desktop exactly the way I like it

[265494]

i hate unity's launch bar and lack of customization. i pretty much hate anything above ubuntu 10.04 lts actually

[cariboo]

What do you mean lack of customization? See the screenshot

[claire14]

I found it folks...


sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool


Install that. Go to Applications > Other > Advanced

You can put a trash can and change your font.

SOLVED

thankyou

[claire14]

I completely agree that it's a serious setback. Unity was useless the first time I tried it (and I tried it many, many times since it was introduced).

I am actually considering going back to *******. For a OS that is allegedly "easily customizable", nothing is intuitive. I'm stuck with a screen that is sized too large for what I can do, it's not customizable, and I want to see what I have installed easily, not having to type what I &*#$&*#^ well want.

Is Unity supposed to be a guessing game? Do I have this installed? Do I need to download that? Really? No, really?

lol i logged in on 11.04 maybe 200 times abd only 10 log ins got logged in and 12.04 unity had no trash bin so back to gnome

if its not broken don't fix it

how can right click be enabled on the top and bottom task bars and how do you get the battery status to click and how can all the browsers and everything i had on the top status bar be put back i had browsers and movie players added now they only run instead of showing add to status bar or running
can anyone help